A microfluidic chip embracing a nanofiber scaffold for 3D cell culture and real-time monitoring

Abstract

Recently, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture and tissue-on-a-chip application have attracted attention because of increasing demand from the industries and their potential to replace conventional two-dimensional culture and animal tests. As a result, numerous studies on 3D in-vitro cell culture and microfluidic chip have been conducted. In this study, a microfluidic chip embracing a nanofiber scaffold is presented. A electrospun nanofiber scaffold can provide 3D cell culture conditions to a microfluidic chip environment, and its perfusion method in the chip can allow real-time monitoring of cell status based on the conditioned culture medium. To justify the applicability of the developed chip to 3D cell culture and real-time monitoring, HepG2 cells were cultured in the chip for 14 days. Results demonstrated that the cells were successfully cultured with 3D culture-specific-morphology in the chip, and their albumin and alpha-fetoprotein production was monitored in real-time for 14 days.